Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 195
Shake Up
“Sen.-elect Adam Hamilton, who flipped deep-red Kansas for Democrats, said Sunday that he hopes to prioritize lowering costs for his constituents in the next Congress and that he would be ‘deeply disappointed’ to spend two years investigating members of the Trump administration,” NBC News reports.
Said Hamilton: “The bigger priority for me, and I think for most people in America, especially people living paycheck to paycheck, is ‘please help us with the cost of living,.'”
“Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said he hopes Democrats prioritize healthcare and food assistance when they take control of Congress in January, though he urged them not to forget to hold the Trump administration accountable,” NBC News reports.
Said Shapiro: “I hope one of the first things that the Congress does is to stop these Medicaid cuts, stop the SNAP cuts, roll back the cuts, the effective cuts in the Affordable Care Act.”
“House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) came out in support of impeaching Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Sunday, telling ABC News he’s a ‘hard yes,'” ABC News reports.
Said Jeffries: “I’m a hard yes on the Hegseth resolution. The so-called secretary of defense has abused his power, undermined our national security, and engineered this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran, which has skyrocketed prices on the American people and made the country less safe.”
Axios: House poised to impeach Pete Hegseth after GOP midterm defeat.
“As Republicans reel from devastating midterm losses, one Southern governor who survived the blue wave — Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas — might represent the party’s path forward from the wilderness,” Bloomberg reports.
“Sanders, the daughter of U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and a press secretary during Donald Trump’s first term, can’t fully escape the shadow of a president who voters currently find deeply unpalatable, in no small part because of a war in Iran that has driven up prices.”
“But her experience behind the podium for Trump taught her to channel his populist appeal while sanding down the sharper edges.”
“Furthermore, Sanders’ time outside of Washington offers not distance and space to develop her own governing model away from the national spotlight — just in case 2028 calls.”
Sarah Longwell: “Last week we assembled a focus group of Republicans who voted for President Trump in both 2020 and 2024, and who, except for some local elections, voted straight-ticket Republican in this year’s midterms.”
“In my conversation with these voters, one thing became abundantly clear in their cacophony of cope: They were not blaming Trump. Instead, they were blaming the GOP candidates on the ticket for being terrible. They were blaming social media for pushing Trump Derangement Syndrome. And they were blaming their fellow Americans, who they insisted were just too brainwashed and emotional to just hold their noses and vote for the terrible candidates that Republicans offered them.”
James Pindell: “Imagine this scenario: Trump is a transactional politician and human. Ideology has always taken a back seat. He can run for president slamming China and then court the communist dictator looking to make deals. He can encourage White nationalists on the presidential debate stage and also lobby for and sign criminal justice reform. He can even agree with Bernie Sanders on a number of populist issues, including a critique of Kamala Harris’s corporate backers and the government being a part owner in Intel, a private company.”
“It’s not impossible to think that a president like this, particularly one in legacy mode as Trump has been for months, would try to find a way to put his name on bills that the populist MAGA base and the populist left would celebrate.”
“After all, wasn’t the entire point of the Jared Kushner meeting with likely incoming House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries in September? To find some common things Trump and Democrats could do together?”
“But, no. By picking Miller, Trump has double-, triple-, and quadrupled-down by making the most important staffer the one who might be the most ardent MAGA supporter still left.”
“A missing memory card discovered in southwest Georgia could cost Democrats a seat in the state House and narrow their newly won majority before they even take power,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
“State election officials said Friday they uncovered a discrepancy in Seminole County’s vote totals that led them to an uncounted memory card.”
“Once the votes were uploaded, Republican state Rep. Gerald Greene went from trailing Democrat Harry James by 58 votes to leading by 262.”
“Beto O’Rourke has a clear message for Texas Democrats following their historic victories Tuesday: deliver,” the Dallas Morning News reports.
“O’Rourke, whose narrow loss to GOP Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018 foreshadowed that flipping the state from red to blue was possible, believes Democrats should pass three policies that could appeal to Texans across party lines in the 2027 legislative session. Expand Medicaid. Raise the state minimum wage. Increase public school teacher salaries.”
Said O’Rourke: “Those are three things that would be felt by everybody, Republican or Democrat, rural or urban.”
Jonathan Chait: “Trump dwells in a zero-sum world, divided between winners and losers. His instinct in a moment of defeat is to empower an aide who he himself recognizes has at times gone too far. But Trump cannot admit he has failed, or bring himself to show any weakness. Better to go too far than not far enough.”
“The Democrat Party does not fight for, care about or represent American citizens. It is an entity devoted exclusively to the defense of hardened criminals, gangbangers and illegal alien killers and terrorists. The Democrat Party is not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization.”
— White House chief of staff Stephen Miller, quoted by the Daily Caller, on August 26, 2025.
New York Times: “In the days since Republicans’ blowout loss, Turning Point leaders have been left to sift through the rubble of the ‘red wall’ they had pledged to build in Arizona, Nevada and New Hampshire, states they view as critical battlegrounds. Despite the group’s significant investment, the only high-profile candidate in those three states who won with its backing was Kelly Ayotte, the incumbent governor of New Hampshire.”
“Turning Point and its allies have defended the group’s strategy, blaming Republican losses on a brutal national political environment stemming from President Trump’s deeply unpopular war with Iran. And they note that many other Republican candidates who ran without Turning Point’s backing lost by similar margins.”
Bruce Mehlman: “For months every indicator flashed ‘big blue wave.’ If anything, they undersold it.”
“The next two years will be the most disruptive and unpredictable in modern memory. Business will be squeezed between a still-powerful Executive Branch it must work with and an electorally-emboldened Congress determined to find and expose corruption. Both parties face early, bruising and drawn-out presidential primaries pitting populists against more mainstream contenders.”
“And all this while AI transforms everything at accelerating speed and new forces reshape the world order in real time.”
Ronald Brownstein: “From the weakest to the strongest Republican candidates, from purple to ruby-red terrain, hardly anyone in the GOP escaped untouched by last week’s ferocious roar from American voters.”
“It was a night when, to paraphrase the Bible, the electoral rain fell on the just and the unjust alike.”
“Tactical campaign decisions and financial advantages, or even candidate quality cannot explain movement of this magnitude and consistency; change this big flows only from a current broad and deep enough to cut through the entire country.”
“Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), in a striking interview on Saturday, accused the Trump administration of corruption,” the Washington Post reports.
“Johnson referenced recent claims made by Calley Means, a former Trump White House adviser who quit last month. On an episode of the ‘Joe Rogan Experience’ podcast released Friday, Means accused Trump’s top aides and political strategists of catering to special interests, specifically naming individuals close to President Donald Trump who he alleged blocked policies popular within the Make America Healthy Again movement.”
“Johnson told Fox News on Saturday that Means laid out ‘in gory detail’ concerning levels of corruption within government, including corruption ‘within the Trump administration.'”
Karen Tumulty: “Your calendar says there are still almost two months to go in 2026. But according to the biorhythms of politics, the 2028 presidential season is already upon us.”
“With no White House incumbent on the ballot, bitterly fought primary contests — something party elders usually dread and sometimes tinker with their rules to avoid — could be in the offing for Democrats and Republicans.”
“Many argue it would be not only a healthy exercise, but a necessary one.”
Said David Axelrod: “I have never felt more strongly that we need these primaries. Primaries are the way we prod and poke and test people who are applying for the hardest job in the world.”
“Ambitious Republicans were already sizing up JD Vance ahead of the 2028 presidential primary. Tuesday night’s GOP bludgeoning has only emboldened some of them,” the Washington Post reports.
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis embarked on a media blitz in recent days as he prepares a potential run, according to three people briefed on his plans. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is weighing a bid, said a person with knowledge of his plans. And Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is planning to work with longtime consultant Jeff Roe of Axiom Strategies if he enters the race.”
“Twice since 2000 — with George W. Bush and then Donald J. Trump — Republicans have lost the national popular vote but won the Electoral College. That has left many Democrats furious with the system,” the New York Times reports.
“Eliminating the Electoral College would require a constitutional amendment, a highly unlikely prospect in a polarized nation. But after Tuesday’s midterm elections, Democrats will soon have enough power in statehouses across the country to try to circumvent it without an amendment.”
“Since 2007, 18 Democratic-run states and the District of Columbia have joined a legal framework that would pledge their Electoral College votes to the nationwide popular vote winner, rather than the winner in their state. The effect of the pact, if enacted and enforced, would be the same as replacing the Electoral College with the popular vote.”
New York Times: “The rush to point fingers comes as the Republican Party is plunging into perhaps its most uncertain moment in years. For a decade, Mr. Trump has controlled the GOP with an iron grip, remaking Republicanism in his MAGA image with little tolerance for dissenting views. Now, as they worry about what could amount to generational losses for their party, some Republicans are embarking on the earliest of efforts to transform the midterm wipeout into a new path forward.”
“These fledgling conversations about the future are taking shape against the backdrop of a quietly bubbling 2028 presidential campaign. Mr. Vance, Mr. Cruz and Mr. DeSantis injected themselves into the debate with their early and extensive assessments in no small part because they are considered potential presidential contenders.”
“They may not be totally in charge of charting their own destinies — or their party’s. Mr. Trump, not even halfway through his four-year term, remains in the White House. He has shown little inclination to change course.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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